Senior BJP leader Devender Singh Rana on Tuesday claimed that National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah had offered unconditional support to the BJP at the behest of NC chief Farooq Abdullah after the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls threw up a hung verdict.
Responding to Omar’s statements that all parties in Kashmir have been “a part of the BJP”, Rana, who was earlier the NC’s president for Jammu province, said: “The reality is completely different. Now, you (Omar) claim that (BJP J&K election in-charge) Ram Madhav is close to the PDP. But the truth is you repeatedly approached the BJP and RSS for government formation after the 2014 polls.”
Rana, who was seen as a close aide of Omar when in the NC, also claimed he had accompanied Omar to Delhi when he met BJP leaders, including Madhav and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and offered support to them in return for the CM’s post.
Claiming that the NC “wanted to be in power in Jammu and Kashmir at any cost”, the BJP leader said that Farooq, who was in Katra at the time, had told Omar to meet BJP and RSS leaders with the offer. “He also unsuccessfully approached them (the BJP, RSS) again in 2016 following the death of Mufti (PDP chief Mufti Mohammed Sayeed),” Rana added.
Following the 2014 Assembly poll results, the BJP had joined hands with the PDP to form a government led by Sayeed. It walked out of the coalition in 2018 over differences with Mehbooba Mufti, who took over as CM after Sayeed’s death.
Rana, the BJP candidate from the Nagrota Assembly seat, also pointed out that Omar had been a part of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government in 1999.
